The Difference Between Intuition & Psychic Ability

The terms psychic ability and intuition are often used interchangeably and I have been guilty of doing so in the past as well. There definitely is some overlap but I define them differently. You may disagree with how I differentiate the two processes and that’s completely fine. However, I often find people who strive to enhance their psychic ability and settle for intuition, believing that this is psychic ability. In my view, intuition is a completely natural ability that every single person has without having to put effort into aside from listening to your body and trusting it. Whereas psychic ability is preternatural and often takes a lot of work into developing and maintaining. Perhaps the main difference is that intuition is based on external environmental information, whereas psychic ability is not. Psychic people tend to always be highly intuitive in my experience, but intuitive people are not always psychic.

The mind is constantly being bombarded with information about our environment, and as such, the brain doesn’t focus on a lot of this information and doesn’t relay it as conscious observations. However, the information is not simply abandoned. Instead, it’s processed differently. Intuition observes patterns and is usually felt as feelings as opposed to concrete ideas. The place where intuition is most felt tend to be in the gut and the heart area. These feelings when focused on they begin to become a bit more conscious and your mind begins connecting the feelings with these unconscious bits of information and relays them as projections and assumptions.

The best way to describe the process of information is that it’s very much like a Sherlock Holmes in the background tying together pieces of information. In the BBC show Sherlock, the way that Sherlock deduces information is very much like the process of intuition, except that he’s conscious of all these pieces of information and their connections. Here’s a scene to illustrate what I’m discussing if you’re unfamiliar with the show.

Now, this isn’t to say that intuition isn’t remarkable. Someone deeply in touch with their intuition can relay amazing information and it’s a valuable asset to have. But the truth is, it’s not purely psychic. The overlap with psychic ability is that the mind usually isn’t aware of where the information is coming from and learning to listen to your intuition helps one to tap into their psychic ability as there are similar areas of learning to go inward, focus, and trust what you’re receiving.

Psychic experiences, on the other hand, have absolutely no reliance on external environmental factors. They are preternatural in the sense that there’s no explainable reason why that information has been received in the way that it has been. You meet someone new and you have the sense that they’re an artist, but you’re not quite sure why. This is most likely intuition. An explanation of why you believe they’re an artist is because unconsciously your mind has processed information without you realizing it such as you’ve noticed small paint splatters on their shoes, their hands remind you of other artists who use their fingers and muscles in a certain way than other people, their hairstyle is a bit less appropriate for a work environment, a series of tattoos shows that they appreciate art and are more likely to be more interested in aesthetics than conforming.

Now you haven’t consciously understood this information that your brain has processed. You just sort of know they’re most likely an artist based on comparisons and projections of previous experiences and information that you have. This is also often true on whether you trust and like someone or not that you’ve just met without any discernable reason. That’s because your brain is soaking in information on the individual and then comparing it with your experiences of similar information and creating a projection. That doesn’t mean that this is wrong information just because it’s a projection. It means that it’s a natural process that is often felt as hunches or “gut feelings” which can help you navigate through decision-making processes, and usually quite effectively.

An example of a psychic experience is meeting someone and suddenly receiving the name “Sarah” over and over again, having an image of a house and smelling roses when there are absolutely no roses or scents like that in the environment. Later that day, the person you just met finds out that their friend Sarah whom they haven’t spoken to in almost a year is sick. The person goes to visit their friend Sarah and upon walking up to their home is struck by what a remarkable rose garden they have. There’s absolutely no environmental information upon meeting the person that would have informed you of this information. It’s information that is much more preternatural in its experience.